Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 [Paperback]

Read Rafe Esquith's posts on the Penguin Blog.

The New York Timesbestseller that is revolutionizing the way Americans educate their kids- Rafe Esquith is a genius and a saint (The New York Times)

Perhaps the most famous fifth-grade teacher in America, Rafe Esquith has won numerous awards and even honorary citizenship in the British Empire for his outstandingly successful methods. In his Los Angeles public school classroom, he helps impoverished immigrant children understand Shakespeare, play Vivaldi, and become happy, self-confident people. This bestseller gives any teacher or parent all the techniques, exercises, and innovations that have made its author an educational icon, from personal codes of behavior to tips on tackling literature and algebra. The result is a powerful book for anyone concerned about the future of our children.Teach Like Your Hair's On FirePrologue: Fire in the Classroom

Part One: There's No Place Like Home

One:Gimme Some Truth
Two:Searching for Level VI

Part Two: The Method

Three:Reading for Life
Four:Writing
Five:Add It Up
Six:We Won't Get Fooled Again
Seven:What a Wonderful World
Eight:Rocket Man
Nine:Art Lover
Ten:Put Me In, Coach
Eleven:Taxman

Part Three: The Madness

Twelve:Think for Yourself
Thirteen:Celluloid Heroes
Fourteen:Goin' Mobile
Fifteen:It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (but I Like It)
Sixteen:Do They Know It's Christmas?
Seventeen:Will Power

Epilogue:Rest in Peace

Acknowledgments
Appendixes

Esquith is a modern-day Thoreau, preaching the value of good work, honest self- reflection, and the courage to go one's own way.
-Newsday

Politicians, burbling over how to educate the underclass, would do well+